Barrel full of interest in barracks

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This article was published 17/08/2018 (2077 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Kapyong Barracks has attracted much attention in recent years, from suggestions to set up a refugee camp to confusion over whether the site will have adequate electricity.

Hundreds of pages of emails obtained from Canada Lands Co. (CLC) reveal the Crown corporation fielded a range of interest in the property from the public and various levels of government during the past three years.

The documents show the CLC has been closely involved in Canada’s negotiations with Treaty 1 First Nations since September 2015, days after former prime minister Stephen Harper decided against taking Ottawa’s fight to the Supreme Court (and one month before Justin Trudeau’s Liberals took office).

In November 2015, a retired Winnipegger with military experience told media the Kapyong buildings would be an ideal spot to house Syrian refugees arriving as part of the Liberal government’s looming airlift, despite Kapyong buildings being deemed uninhabitable.

The next day, a Canadian company specializing in project design and management approached CLC about supervising the building of temporary dorms on the Kapyong site to house refugees.

The agency referred questions to the military, though CLC staff was perplexed by the idea.

“This is definitely not up my alley of understanding,” one official wrote. Another said it could be “a great opportunity,” but “who knows when the refugees would be resettled and the property vacant again — it would take years.”

The documents also show CLC met with Mayor Brian Bowman in April 2016, which appears to be the first time a federal agency formally discussed Kapyong with the city in roughly a decade.

In September 2017, rumours of an imminent deal on Kapyong led to CLC fielding requests for more information, including from other CLC employees.

Meanwhile, a confused Manitoba Hydro employee reached out to CLC last November, asking for clarity about what will come of the site, so they could revamp aging infrastructure in time for any future residents to access electricity.

“Here at Manitoba Hydro, we have been getting bits and pieces of what is being proposed for the barracks site, but nothing reasonably solid,” the Hydro official wrote.

The documents also show the federal public works department sought information from CLC about Kapyong to prepare the introductory binder for its new minister after the Trudeau government’s fall 2015 election; they flagged Kapyong as a “property with hot-button issues.”

In April, seven Treaty 1 First Nations confirmed an agreement in principle with Ottawa to acquire 110 acres of the former Kapyong Barracks land on Kenaston Boulevard and convert it into an urban reserve. Another 50 acres will be developed by the CLC.

Long Plain Chief Dennis Meeches, speaking on behalf of the consortium of First Nations, said the site would likely involve a mix of commercial and residential development, with a cultural component.

Meeches said Treaty 1 aims to get renderings completed by this fall with the help of CLC, though the corporation was hesitant to confirm that.

“We are currently focused on furthering our work with the Nations,” wrote spokeswoman Manon Lapensée, as well as working “with the city and the community on developing a new vision for the site. An exact timeline has not been established.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca